Together or Alone?
by prlrocks
Summary: Topher muses over his girl's fate. For whedonland fic challanege; Prompt- Topher/Claire; Much to my surprise this placed 3rd! I seriously rushed writing this!


**Title:** Together or Alone?  
**Rating:** PG  
**Pairing: **Topher/Claire  
**Words: **715  
**Disclaimer:** Belongs to the boss, Joss Whedon  
**Summary: **Topher muses over his girl's fate. For **whedonland** fic challanege on LJ; Prompt- Topher/Claire; Much to my surprise this placed 3rd!! I seriously rushed writing this!

* * *

"Dr. Saunders? "

The moment Topher walked into the room, his heart stopped. He didn't know if it was in fear or in the hope that she just might know. He wanted her back, desperately, but he could bear to see her fall. He couldn't bear her learning and seeing that her time to shine was over and she was now limping towards the end.

"I think you gave me more computer skills than would be required by a medical doctor," she said simply. "It was very easy for me to hack your system. I'm curious."

"About?"

"Well, I guess, I understand why they wouldn't wanna waste an investment. And I suppose, why hire a new physician when you can just... imprint the broken Doll. But why did you decide it was so important for me to hate you? I think that's strange."

Never a broken doll. Never. And the hate? What better way to show his hatred of what they had become. _Nothing. _And at least, she felt something, anything, towards him.

"You didn't open it," he said in wonder. His girl would have opened it. She lived for exploring the unknown. That is how they came to this moment. It seemed it would not be how they would be leaving it.

"No."

"Aren't you curious to see who you really are?"

"I know who I am."

As she walked away, he closed his eyes and shook his head. _No, no she really didn't. _She was so much more. She was a girl, who, in the end, let her curiosity get the best of her. She wanted to be on the cutting edge of science. Master minding the methods behind the science had never been enough. No, not for her. She wanted to_ be_ the science, to experience the wonders of what they did. The others may have volunteered to be 'dolls' to escape something, but not her. No, she had been running towards something with bright expectations in her eyes.

"It's so much greater than us," she had once said. "The sacrifice is worth it."

Even then those words had burned. By 'us' she hadn't meant them as people. That he would have understood. To rise to the top, great minds often risked much. Either crumbling under the pressure of living or dreaming in the unknown or reaching it, to just tumble down into the darkness. The halls of scientific achievement were littered in the bodies of those people.

But that hadn't been what she had meant. She had meant them as a couple. Topher had never been able to let that go. Even now he clung to it with a passion not many people would even see or ever feel. What was achievement if they did not reach it together? Wasn't that the point of all this? The thrill of doing it together?

As she had laid in that chair the first time, he knew then they hadn't seen eye to eye on that. She wanted reach the end, even if it was alone. And as he put into action the techniques that they had often laid in bed talking about, he watched his beloved and their life together be erased.

Claire had always been curious and yes, she had always been running towards something. She had been willing it give it all to reach the finish line, but somehow she hadn't done so and he did. No, when she reached out, she grabbed something else. Something awful.

At this point, all Topher had left was hoping that something wasn't the death of her true self. He lived with the hope that one day, she might return. Not so they could be together, but just so she might be. He long ago, excepted that they were over. Still, could she bear her fate? What she had become?

Beautiful, curious Claire had given her all just to get nothing in return. And him? He stood by, carrying out their work. Even now, he still did it for them. But no matter what, he wasn't willing to step over her dead body to reach the finish line. She would be standing by his side, maybe hating him, but still there. His Dr. Saunders.

For him, they would always be in this together.


End file.
